The present invention relates to a plasma treating apparatus for producing a plasma from a gaseous material including nitrogen atoms and for depositing or etching purposes, and further, to a temperature measuring method of measuring the temperature of surfaces of heated holders, a heated substrate, or local heat sources by comparing a measured distribution of emission intensity due to rotational quantum transition of nitrogen molecules with a calculated distribution.
Heretofore, in order to measure surface temperatures and a temperature distribution of a substrate during depositing or etching processes using plasma, thermocouples contacting with substrate holders have been used. No consideration is paid to possible influences of gas mixture ratios or mixed gas flow rates.
Since surface reactions are generally dominant in plasma dissociation reactions, the influences of substrate temperature on film depositing or etching are variously different from each other in dependence on structures of individual apparatus and substrate holders.
Further, the substrate surface temperature is much influenced by the location of substrate holders. In consequence, temperature measurements through thermocouples have their limits.
Experiments made by D. M. Phillips (Journal of Physics D, volume 9, page 507, 1975), on which the analysis used in the present invention is based, is such that the temperature rise of a nitrogen molecule is instantly measured, and exciting light alone is used as a heat source for heating the nitrogen gas. However, the paper mutes to a substrate, substrate heating method, nor a substrate treatment with plasma, and to influences of mixture gas or mixture gas flow rate.